A slow
rescue for Morocco’s
earthen citadels
Mohamed Berriane, geographer, professor at Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco
When the river is in full spate, the fortified village of Aït
Ben Haddou is difficult to reach.
Classical restoration techniques are of little help in safeguarding
the fragile architecture of southern Morocco’s ksars. One solution would be to draw
back villagers who have abandoned these fortified villages.
Aït Ben Haddou
|
But I was impelled by a resolute spirit and the desire to
visit these illustrious sanctuaries was hidden in my bosom. . . . And I abandoned
my dwelling just as birds abandon Ibn Batutah, traveller and writer from the Maghreb (1304-1377) |
Many organized excursions from Marrakesh and Ouarzazate now include a stop at Aït Ben Haddou, which is attracting around 400 visitors a day. The money from this has helped the inhabitants of the new village to do up their houses and buy an electricity generator.
Reviving
southern Morocco’s ancient fortified villages
is no easy task
Will tourism
save the ksars and kasbahs of the valleys and oases of southern Morocco? Perched
on rocky crags, these fortified buildings made of compacted earth mixed with water
and chopped straw are a draw for foreign tourists in search of unusual architectural
sites. One jumping-off point to see them is Ouarzazate in the Atlas Mountains, 200
kilometres south of Marrakesh. This remote and ancient little town has become a busy
tourist centre. With a total 5,502 beds in its officially-approved hotels, it attracts
more than 450,000 overnight visits every year.
The Ouarzazate region contains 300 of the thousand or so kasbahs that have been identified
in Morocco. These structures, which come in all sizes, are notable for the beauty
of their architecture and their imaginative use of space. But they are also fragile
and many of them are extremely dilapidated.
Single-family dwellings in fortified villages or ksars, into which there is a single
entrance, kasbahs are remarkable for their defensive architecture, usually featuring
towers atop each of their four corners. The upper parts of some of these two- or
three-storey buildings, which have roof-terraces resting on beams made from the trunks
of palm-trees, are lavishly decorated.
Fragile
and dilapidated
The earthen building
material of these fragile constructions does not stand up well to the ravages of
time and the weather. A ksar only remains intact for about two centuries. In the
past, its occupants would then leave and build another ksar nearby. But social and
economic changes in Morocco and the region at large in recent decades has dealt a
heavy blow to the constant renewal of the ksars.
The end of the trans-Saharan caravan trade, the disappearance of insecurity, the
emergence of a centralized nation-state and the spread of television (reception dishes
seem to sprout from all the dwellings) have all helped to overturn the traditional
way of life in oasis societies. Nowadays, communities whose members have not emigrated
to more prosperous regions use cinder blocks to build small houses outside the old
walls and mosques made of stronger material. These buildings are too hot in summer
and too cold in winter, but some of them have basic amenities such as water and electricity.
However, recent events in the village of Aït Ben Haddou, a village about 35
kilometres from Ouarzazate, show there is still hope for the ksars. Thought to have
been founded in the 11th century, Aït Ben Haddou has six kasbahs and some 50
houses, all in ruins. Its inhabitants have moved out and over to the other side of
the wadi (river), nearer to the main road. Today 84 families live in this modern
settlement.
A masterpiece of architecture and landscape, the old village of Aït Ben Haddou
was included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1987. It was
the first ksar to be preserved under a state-sponsored scheme to save the kasbahs
of southern Morocco. The programme, launched a decade ago by the ministry of culture
and backed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO and the World Tourism Organization
(WTO), aims to foster tourism in the region as well
as saving endangered items of cultural heritage.
Mixed
results
The job has turned
out to be an arduous one. Standard restoration methods are little use because the
original building materials are not very strong. They can only prolong the life of
an earthen building for a few years at most. The only effective way to preserve a
ksar like Aït Ben Haddou is to persuade the villagers to return to live in it
and care for it on a day-to-day basis. To make it habitable, the ministry of culture
has asked other ministries for help. As a result, the public works ministry has looked
into how to improve access to the village, which is difficult when the river is in
full spate. The education ministry has approved the building of a Koranic school
inside the ksar until there are enough children to justify opening a primary school.
The national electricity board has agreed to install solar energy equipment.
But the number of people involved and the maze of bureaucracy have meant only some
of the goals have so far been achieved. Cleaning and preservation work has been started,
architectural surveys of the village houses have been made and a provisional overall
plan has been drawn up. The narrow streets have been paved, the banks of the wadi
strengthened and a footbridge built to provide access to the ksar when the water
level rises. Restoration and renovation work has been done on some covered passageways,
the façades of houses, the mosque and the most lavishly-decorated buildings.
But the village has not yet come back to life. Its only inhabitants are three families
which never went away because they were too poor. Developments that might lure residents
of the new village outside the walls to move back into the old one–such as building
an access road and a proper bridge over the wadi and providing drinking water and
electricity–are a long way off.
There are several reasons for this. The ministries of culture, housing and tourism
are not co-ordinating their efforts. There is also a shortage of funds because of
a general decision to cut public spending. Finally, legal tangles are holding up
work on restoring the houses because the owners of the kasbahs–several heirs who
are mostly joint owners–now live elsewhere in the country or even abroad.
Because of these problems, the authorities have officially dropped plans to include
Aït Ben Haddou and the kasbahs of the south in the list of local tourist “products”.
They are deemed too fragile and precious to be able to stand up to mass tourism.
But the inhabitants of the village have not given up hope of getting some income
from tourism and have taken up where the government has left off. Several foreign
films have been made on the site and the paving of the access track has spawned a
modest tourist infrastructure. Twenty-five bazaars and souvenir shops have been opened,
eight of them in the old village, as well as four café-restaurants which also
offer lodging.
Some emigrants who have returned from abroad have even taken a chance by building
a couple of small hotels. Many organized excursions from Marrakesh and Ouarzazate
now include a stop at Aït Ben Haddou, which is attracting around 400 visitors
a day. The money from this has helped the inhabitants of the new village to do up
their houses and buy an electricity generator.
Restoration work inside the ksar is slowly going ahead, and the local people have
set up the Aït Aïssa Association for Culture and Development, which keeps
a close eye on the restoration work and takes part in meetings about it. Aït
Ben Haddou even seems to have started a trend. In a number of other villages people
have recently started restoring kasbahs and converting them into small hotels.
